Race Regrets
by Lightning Flash
Summary: After loosing a big race, Lightning Flash seeks immediate solitude to sulk. But his sister will not allow that. This story is based on events that happened in Chatper 36 of "The 7th Element" by Thunderhawk 6894.


**Hey folks! This is my first time writing a fanfic, if you can call it that so go easy on me. This story was inspired by the events that happened in Chapter 36 of the MLP:FiM story "The 7th Element" by Thunderhawk6894. You should read Chapter 36 first to get an understanding of what my OC Lightning Flash is going thru. Well, actually, you don't really have to read it...but its recommended! Tell me what you guys think! Happy reading!**

After finishing the race, Lightning Flash decided to make himself scarce. He would have stuck around for the after party and mingled, but wasn't feeling it. All he wanted to do was get away. The white stallion felt he made himself look like a complete fool and sticking around would only heighten those feelings. Although Ponyville wasn't filled with a lot of ill-hearted folks, some of them still had choice words to say about a loser. At least, that's what he thought. He also thought the Princesses would banish him for his cheating acts during the race...but those acts were justified.

Lightning Flash quietly sat upon a cloud high above the outer reaches of Sweet Apple Acres massive Apple Orchard. Behind him spread out the bulk of Sweet Apple Acres and well as Ponyville off in the distance. To his right, more of the Apple tree fields. To his left and front, rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Flash loved coming to this spot. He regularly came here to clear clouds or keep them in check so Sweet Apple Acres get the most and best sunlight possible. It was part of his duties, being on the weather team, to look after this area. Not many outside of Lightning's extremely small circle of friends knew about this spot being his hang out and think area. For the last couple years of him being in Ponyville, he's kept this place to himself...at least up this high.

"I kind of figured you'd be here" Said a soft female voice from behind him. Lightning didnt turn around, for he knew who this voice belonged too without any hesitation or wonder. When he didn't respond, the female came closer and sat beside him.

"So you going to sit here and mope all day? The guys are looking for you." The female would be his sister, Star Flash, a Pegasus with the same coat color as Lightning's. Her mane was a flowing, sparkling electric blue with dark blue highlights as with her tail. Her eyes were a storm cloud gray with a striking blue ring around the outer edges of the pupils. Her soft voice had a tone close to that of Celestia, who she could actually sound like when she wanted too. If this wasn't Lightning Flash's sister, he'd swear Celestia was personally there next to him.

"I'm not moping" Lightning said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "And all the guys will do is likely laugh about me loosing a big race." Lightning Flash had a small fan club of ponies from back in his days of racing for extra money. Lightning wasn't named Lightning just for show. Since he was born, the stallion was fast. Growing up, he would race every chance he got and once he graduated from flight school, racing was a way of making extra money while training to be a Weather Pony. This had its ups and downs, as with everything else but most of his races were on the up side. He ended up gaining a fan club, much to his surprise.

"How would you know? You bailed before anybody could even talk to you."

"I wasn't trying to give the Princesses a chance to banish me. I nearly killed Rainbow Dash in the process of trying to win."

"Yea...what was up with that? You know Dad never approved of cheating to win a race." Star said in a motherly tone. Lightning hated when she spoke to him like that.

He shrugged "I dunno. The heat of the moment I guess. And Dad cant say anything about it...so it's not like it'll make a difference...unless his ghost suddenly pops up to whack me upside the head" And at that mention, Flash looked around nervously, half expecting his late father to suddenly show up from the world beyond to punish him. He wasn't expecting it to come from Star Flash. The white mare reached over and promptly thwapped him up side the head.

"You dummy!"

"OW!" He exclaimed, wincing after the hit. "Geez Star! I already got hit once today...I don't need to get hit again"

"Keep this up and this'll mark the third, fourth and fifth time you've been hit today!"

"Look, if you came up here to abuse me, then I'm calling the law!"

"With what?"

"I dunno...Messenger birds or something...I'll figure it out..."

Star Flash giggled and shook her head. "Always the jokester." Lightning simply gave her a 'What do you want' look.

"Anyways, I came here to talk to you. Lightning, why didn't you just crack out a Sonic Rain boom on them. We both know you're able to do it in level flight. I came all this way from Manehatten to watch you dazzle the crowd with a Sonic Rain boom. Instead, you try and cheat to win and end up loosing anyway. What gives?"

The white stallion simply shrugged, prompting a glare from the equally white mare. Flash felt the glare upon him and turned to give her a look.

"You see how many people were rooting for him? Even the princesses were rooting for him. Even if I won, they likely wouldn't have cared."

"So what dude! Seriously, even if you lost, you could have dazzled the crowd anyway with a Sonic Rain boom past the finish line."

Lightning only shrugged. "And I would have taken away their lime light. I don't think I could have done that."

"So you mean to tell me, you gave up an opportunity to win because you didn't want to take the spot light away from them?" The stallion simply nodded. Star Flash face hoofed.

"Look Star, lemme break it down for you..." Lightning said, a lecturing tone seeping into his voice.

Star sighed, rolling her eyes "Oh boy...here we go..."

"If I won that race or Sonic Rain boomed and all eyes came on me, Ace and Rainbow Dash would have gotten mad. Not only that, she'd fire me, Ace would likely hate my guts, which he probably does now, he's just covering it up really well. The Princesses would disapprove of me beating the 7th Elements...element...elements...you know what I mean!" Star Flash rolled her eyes as he continued. "And not only that, Id be disliked!"

"None of that made any sense..." she said matter of factually.

"I'd get banished to the Everfree Forest!"

"Uh huh...sure..."

Lightning sighed "Star go away...ok?"

"No!" She firmly planted her bottom on his cloud and looked at him with a 'I'm not moving from this spot' expression.

"Star Flash...I want to be al-" Flash would promptly be cut off.

"I'm not going anywhere until I see a dazzling Sonic Rain boom from you. I came this far to see one and darn it, I'm going to get one!"

"Still won't change the fact I'm not awesome"

"Is that what this race thing was about?"

Lightning simply nodded.

"Really Lightning?" Star asked in disbelief.

"Come on Star! You saw how popular he is! Who wouldn't want to be the most popular pony in Ponyville. He's an...Element or whatever. He's like BFFs with the Princesses, he landed a girl and even got a kid by her! He was appointed Captain over the Sky Team for Winter Wrap up, something I should have been appointed too since I've been serving Ponyville for years now! He doesn't have to do much and the girls flock to him. Here I work my butt off and don't even get noticed! I wanna be awesome too! To have my name mentioned and ponies automatically knowing who I am. They hear Lightning Flash and automatically say 'That moron! He's a loud mouthed jerk!' and so forth and so on! Not only that, I'm still single! He gets a girl in the matter of a week...I cant even find one, let alone getting a date!"

"How do you know he pulled a girl his first week here?"

"Dash told me. That's all she used to talk about at work was him...Ace this and Ace that...or Ace is so sweet...and Ace is this...and he can do that...he can do this...blah blah...blah blah...do you know what that'll do to one's self esteem?"

"Shouldn't do anything really..." Lightning simply glared at her.

"You done yet?"

With a sigh, he replied "Yea...pretty much"

Star Flash had quietly listened as Lightning ranted, knowing it would help some if he talked about what he was feeling.

"Good. Lightning, listen to me. You're an awesome guy. You'll find yours sooner or later. Trust me. She's out there waiting for you."

"Easy for you to say...you're married"

"Well it'll continue to be hard for you if all you'll do is mope on a cloud and feel sorry for yourself"

"Whatever Star...you can leave now..."

"You know what would make you feel better?" She'd have a wide smile on her face.

"What?"

"A race against me" She grins wide

Lightning sighed dramatically, "Aarrrgg!". Spreading his wings, he fell back upon the cloud with a puff.

"Tried that already...look where It got me..."

"Yea, here on cloud nine" She said with a giggle.

"Actually this is cloud no. 27. Cloud 9 is somewhere..." Motions off to the right "...Over there..."

Star Flash simply gave him a look that said she was not amused. Lightning Flash just shrugged at her look.

"Ok...that's it...come on...get up" Star Flash began nudging the stallion with a front hoof, much to his displeasure. "No more of this. You look pathetic!" Eventually, he'd give in to the prodding and slowly clamber to his feet.

"Ok ok ok ok!I'm up, I'm up! Happy now?"

"Nope...not until you do a Sonic Rain boom"

"I cant do one..."

"Lies!" More pokes and prods.

"Ok ok ok fine!" He said, stepping to the edge of the cloud. "But only one! Its tiring trying to fly that fast!" Star would break into a broad smile. She was getting what she wanted to see.

With a couple flaps of his wings, the stallion speedster dropped off the cloud and started flying leisure like upwards. Flash loved to fly. He love the feeling of the wind thru his mane and coat, the view from high above and the thrill of being able to fly any and everywhere.

Lightning flew up about a thousand feet or so before pausing. His mismatched eyes scanned the skies around him, making sure nobody was around other than his sister to peek out what he's about to do. He never really was the type of guy to boast about what he can do. Only his sister and parents knew he could perform a Sonic Rain boom. It was that type of high speed flying not many ponies were capable of achieving.

Flash closed his eyes for a second, thinking back to the time when he performed his first Sonic Rain boom for his father when he was a teen. From that point on, he trained, every day to be able to get to a point where he could pull it off with little trouble.

"Here goes..." He said, pulling down his goggles over his mismatched eyes. He took a deep breath and dropped in a shallow, high speed dive. As he leveled out, a Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud began rippling and pulsing around the mid section of the Pegasus just behind his wings. The Prandtl-Glauert effect happens when an aircraft nears the speed of sound. On days where a lot of moisture is in the air, a large 'shock wave cloud' or visible 'Mach cone' can form around the rear section of the aircraft. The faster the aircraft goes, the more streamlined the shock cloud.

As he neared Star Flash and her cloud, it happened. With a flash of aqua blueish light, Lightning Flash cranks out his own version of a Sonic Rain boom. As he passes, his shock wave effectively vaporizes clouds a quarter mile around him. Unfortunately, this included the cloud Star was sitting on. She managed to watch the spectacle before taking to the wind as Lightning flashed by, leaving behind a trail of electric blue and dark gray light, his pulsating shock cloud still visible. The speeding stallion pulled into a steep climb to bleed off speed until eventually pausing into a hover. Star Flash flew up and tackle hugged the stallion, sending both tumbling a few hundred feet before they regained control.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" She yelled in excitement, hugging the poor Lightning Flash to death.

"I cant breath!" He wheezed, a nervous giggle coming from Star, who promptly released the stallion. He began taking deep breaths, trying to recover from his little high speed stunt and the crushing hug he just received from his excited sister. He could do another if he wanted, but that would have him grounded for a while to both catch his breath and let his aching wing muscles rest.

"Now that's what I came to Ponyville to see!" Star said excitedly as the two landed next to an apple tree, one of the many at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres orchard.

"Uh huh..."

"I still think you should have done one during the race...they did."

"We've talked about this already..."

"Still a stupid reason"

"Whatever...just don't tell anypony about this."

"Why not? Its a good thing you can do one of those. I know I cant!"

"Because I dont want everypony knowing."

"I dont understand it..."

"You dont need too"

The two sat in silence for a bit, Lightning giving his flight muscles a little break. Star eventually broke the silence with a bit of observation. "The clouds are gone..."

"I know. It happens when I break the sound barrier for some reason. Haven't really studies it to figure out why."

"I see." She glances over to her brother, poking his side with a hoof "You feel any better?"

Lightning responded with a grin and a nod "Yup. A lot better actually."

"That's good to here. How about we go back into town for some ice cream and you can tell me what its like to stay here in Ponyville"

Lightning gave a 'Sure that's fine' shrug. "What about your hubby?"

Star waved off the question. "He's likely out hanging with the weather guys swopping ole war stories or something. He wont be hard to find." Lightning only shrugged before flapping his wings and lifting off the ground.

"Race you to town!"

"No way Star! I'm done with racing for a while!"

Star Flash giggled before lifting off herself, "Wha...am I hearing this right? Lightning Flash declining a race offer? I'm shocked!" Lightning rolled his eyes, prompting a laugh from Star. The two siblings leisurely flew off back towards Ponyville. Unknown to the two pegasi, a lone Earth pony had watched the entire display, her green eyes following the two fliers as they headed back to Ponyville. She would smile before turning back to head home.


End file.
